Historical Orphanage to return to Ecumenical Patriachate

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan highlighted the further boosting of Greek-Turkish relations in talks he held with Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou in Istanbul on Wednesday, on the sidelines of a SouthEast European Cooperation Process (SEECP) summit.

Erdogan mentioned the importance of the implementation of the agreements signed during his visit to Athens last May and the utilisation of the economic possibilites and opportunities appearing.

Papandreou said after the meeting that discussed among other things were the latest developments on the Gaza blockade and that he had the opportunity of presenting Erdogan with the decisions taken by the Socialist International (SI) unanimously two days ago and in which both the Israelis and Palestinians are represented.

Erdogan also assured Papandreou that Turkey will implement the recent decision by the European Court of Human Rights and will return to the Ecumenical Patriarchate the historic building of the Prigipos orphanage.

The Turkish prime minister had already announced last August that Turkey will implement unequivocally the court’s decision and reiterated this position on Wednesday during his meeting with Papandreou in Istanbul.